ROGAN: Yeah, exactly. Women come to Romany's home. They just knock at his door.

MALCO: It's all a myth actually, I'm still a virgin&#Array; (Laughs)

ROGAN: He's a virgin today.

MALCO: It's actually my life story. You know dude, straight up and down - that whole character you saw is nothing like me - for the record. If I am attracted to a woman I have the hardest time saying my name. And usually I do my best not to be on the prowl for anything, because I end up getting in trouble. I choose horribly.

APATOW: I'm married and have two kids. But it is sad that I understand this world so well.

Q. The character is fairly normal, not the stereotype you'd assume. Can you talk a little bit about making him a normal guy?

APATOW: When Steve and I had our initial conversations about writing this, we talked about how broad the movie would be and my favorite experiences have been when you can be really funny and broad with a grounded character. Like some of the sequences on Freaks and Geeks. So, I thought of it as Freaks and Geeks 20 years later if one of them never had sex. And that was my secret thought as I made the movie. And there was some concern it could become a Pee Wee Herman type character and we always had our eye on the ball. And our executive at Universal, Mary Perrin, was really smart about making sure we didn't do that. Make him a real guy and people will care about him. And we had this joke early on that he worked out a lot because he had a lot of extra energy because he didn't have a lot of sex. Steve took it very seriously and lost 30 pounds and started working out and he was ripped and I thought, 'Oh my God, I'm working with Joe Piscapo.' And I was nervous about it, because I don't think comedians wanting to look good is ever good for the comedy. But it actually makes it work better, because there is no reason he's not a virgin other than the fact he's shy and nervous and let it get past him. And I think we learned from our research when we read a lot of blogs on the internet from virgins that they are all just nice, shy people and they weren't odd. There wasn't any big joke to it. And we wanted to respect that about the topic.

ROGAN: It's funny if he's just a guy you don't notice really. And if he was too extreme in a way you'd notice him, but I think part of the idea is he's one of these guys who could be in a room with you alone and not know he's there.

APATOW: That I think is a tribute to Steve's performance. He's underplaying this part and tearing down the house at the same time. And he's able to be a real person not like a comic character. It's not as though he's doing Inspector Clouseau. He really created a character that's really reactive. But when you give him a scene to go broad or he's drunk, he kills in a completely different way. I mean, I'm really amazed at what he accomplished in this part, because he's never done anything like this or been the lead in a movie. In the past he's played obnoxious guys and really dumb guys and he's really great at it, but there is no real precedence for his work here. And I think it's really exciting and it's the emergence of a major comic star who can do all of it. It's really quite remarkable from someone who is a really journeyman actor who never even thought this would happen to him. So, I'm really excited for him.

From left, Carell, Rogan, Rudd and Malco

Q. How challenging was this to put together in the editing room with all the improv that takes place?

APATOW: We did that on Freaks and Geeks a fair amount with the kids, because they were really good at it - especially Seth. And then I brought Seth on as a writer and actor on Undecleared because of how funny his improvs were. And then on Undecleared - which is coming out this week on DVD - we did a ton of improv and Will Ferrell did an episode where he played a methamphetamine addict who will write your term paper for $50 bucks. So, I worked really hard on Anchorman as a producer to have that kind of production where we were really set up for Will to go. And what was different about this was that we were trying to do these improvs, but with a grounded story. And I would literally put one camera on Jay and one camera on Steve and shoot their conversation. Most times I'd shoot one side that the other - I would shoot them both and just let them go for two hours and the crew seemed really annoyed. No one knew this could cut together. But, if you pay attention what they are saying and say, 'Dude you forgot - say this line without them stepping on you.' I mean if you're listening and cutting in your head, it's not to hard and then things come out that you'd never have thought of in a million years. Especially all the things that Romany says.